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Despite as many as you want shells bright pink bean, Margaret Tindimutuma swollen, the feet are in pain. The Ugandan matriarch has a rare type of elephantiasis, your family untold suffering.

"I've always had allergies, since I was young. To arise, therefore, when my legs started small swellings, such as boils, I didn't think much of him," the eighty Year old says, as she sits on a papyrus Mat in the middle of a compound of mud in the houses.

"But The Pain was so intense, I would be in stitches feel about, all of them. The Skin between the toes broke out in sores. Then my sons started to get sick. I wondered if you had inherited my disease. "

her two adult sons, both died After The Wounds caused were infected by the disease, one in 2017 and The Other in the last Year .

we BBCWhen us for The Pain , my husband would be able to afford to walk around. But died of the time as he, he couldn' t even get out of bed" hope Amooti
widow

We sit on a wooden bench in The Yard , as Hope Amooti, The Widow shows one of them, me photos of happier times. Her husband of 18 years, was a great man, and in a picture he has looks at a broad smile and shy on the floor.

"When The Pain overwhelmed in his legs him, his back grew permanently rounded.

"If we can afford to painkillers, he would have to walk around. But died of the time when he could not, he says from his bed," Ms. Amooti, shielding her welling eyes from The Morning Sun .

The Family , the memory of happier times

In another photo, Mr. Amooti Younger Brother , sits with his sisters in a decorated tent. He has No Shoes , and you can see that his feet are slightly swollen, The Skin between the toes broken and peeling.

'to be Rejected, the in-laws'

Enid Twasiima, a woman Tindimutuma the daughters, who had been married in another village, ill. Her arm grew up in a ashen, swollen report.

The disease then moved her legs. The Family of her husband rejected her, and she returned to Kyakatoma The Village with their children.

Enid Twasiima used a handkerchief to way,

fly"I have enough food for My Family . For the past five years, I was still at home," Mrs Tindimutuma says.

Ms Twasiima, sitting on a stool nearby, listening thoughtfully. It covers the worst of The Wounds with a dirty plaid handkerchief tied around the leg, away from the buzzing fly.

As we speak, a neighbor joins us. The lower part of his leg has a deep, weeping ulcer. Out of politeness I stop my nose from the stench.

In the Year 2015, a team of scientists visited classified The Village in search of clues about this rare disease, The World Health organization (WHO) as a neglected tropical disease.

they took Soil samples, tested and those who were sick.

scientists have showed advised to wash The Villagers , their arms and legs After working in The Yard

their results, that the elephantiasis, which has been ravaged is dozens of families in Uganda, the Western district of Kamwenge, a rare type, known as podoconiosis.

While The Most common form of elephantiasis, caused by worms, microfilariae mosquito borne, podoconiosis results from exposure to minerals in the area's volcanic soils.

"are minerals like silica, iron and aluminum, really small particles that penetrate deep into The Skin ," says senior epidemiologist Christine Kihembo, who led the study while working in the Ministry of health.

"they affect the normal flow of fluid in the limbs, causing The Pain and the inflammation. The condition manifests After years of exposure to the ground. "

Getty image elephantiasis

A neglected tropical disease

Lymphatic filariasisis the medical name for the condition "

symptom include the abnormal enlargement of Body Parts , causes pain

893 million people in 49 countries are threatened by lymphatic filariasis

120 million infected in the Year 2000, 40 million disfigured or disabled

transmitted most commonly by mosquitoes

Podoconiosis is a rare kind of relate to some of the minerals in the volcanic Soil

source: WHO

Some of the reports that More Than 300 people could be affected in The District of Kamwenge alone. Some cases have been seen further South in Kisoro.

Podoconiosis has also been included in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Cameroon. This type of elephantiasis is thought to affect about four million people worldwide, according to estimates by the WHO.

'Gumboots estimated'

families in Kamwenge derive their livelihood from The Land . The Locals work in the rich Soil , with basic tools and their bare hands.

After the results of the study were published, The Scientists advised The Villagers wear protective clothing and wash their arms and legs to work shortly After The Farm . Rubber boots was were a valuable possession for those who can afford it.

In the neighboring village, 39-Year -old Provia Arinaitwe whimpers, as she rises from a Mat in front of their small house. She is down with a bout of malaria, what are the days of caring for your legs. And now The Pain is back.

her calloused legs are covered by dark spots, But Ms Arinaitwe, no festering wounds. She is in a better condition than all the others I have met. And she shows me why.

I BBCWhen use salt Three Times A Day , it is a great Relief . But sometimes I have no money to buy salt" Provia Arinaitwe
Villager

After washing your feet in a plastic bowl with water, it measures three measuring spoons of cooking salt in the palm of your hand, threw it in in The Clean pool, where their daughter mugfuls of water pours. She soaks her feet in the water for 15 Minutes .

"If I do this Three Times A Day , it is a great Relief . I Am able to go about my work. But sometimes I have no money to pay for the salt, and the blisters and pain," she says, wincing, as she slips the feet into a pair of Slippers.

Dr. Kihembo says that during the study, it was found that people who have their feet washed within at least two hours After the completion of the work on The Farm were 11 times less likely to have symptoms of podoconiosis as those which are cleaned until much later or not at all.

There are medications in Uganda, which can be used to treat, The Most common form of elephantiasis, But affected by podoconiosis can afford only symptomatic Relief of The Pain , the difficult to to.

Shunned

Everest Beyanga is a local volunteer who, in The Absence of intervention by the government, has managed to document his job, this misery.

He carries around a bundle of papers in a blue Folder .

BBCNo-a visit to was these people. Everyone is avoiding you because of your wounds stink" are Everest Beyanga
volunteers

Written on them the names, the ages, the villages of: every single person suffering from this debilitating disease in his sub-county. On a separate sheet a list of 30 who have died, starting since he made his rounds.

with a sigh of hopelessness: "there is No visit was these people. Everyone is avoiding you because of your wounds stink.

"I thought, 'This is my village. "If the disease is, in fact, in the earth, we will catch all.

"Sometimes, all you need For You and Greet you. But sometimes I don't want to come to, because I offer once again a pack of salt. "

At our last stop, The Woman asks, we came to see, After three people, she knew, had podoconiosis.

they all died since he last visited, Mr. Beyanga she says.

she had not heard the news, as she was well enough to leave your home and no one had seen it coming.

their furrows her brow at the answer she hobbles away prune their banana trees with a Machete in Hand.

uganda

Source of news: bbc.com